Disunity

I’ve been using Ubuntu as my operating system for a while (almost five years now). A new version is released twice a year, and each version is generally better than the last, although there have been some hiccups along the way. The latest version, released last month, comes with a new(ish) interface, and the old one isn’t included by default.

The new interface, known as Unity, has made a lot of users upset, and a great deal of digital ink has been spilled over its flaws. I don’t mean to jump into the mostly one-sided flame wars, but hey, it looks like that’s what I’m doing. But I just want to peacefully opine, for anyone interested now or in the future, in my own little space (here).

So, here’s basically why the change was made in the first place. The software that powers Ubuntu’s interface is called GNOME, and the current version (2.x) was getting pretty old. By default, it looks mostly like traditional Windows, except that that the panel on the bottom of the screen is just for open programs and the panel on there’s a panel on top for the time and everything else. (Here’s a screenshot of my desktop from a few years ago.) The GNOME developers recently decided to overhaul everything and call it GNOME 3. The new GNOME looks more like Mac OS X, with a single panel along the top of the screen and a section for program icons on the side.

Meanwhile, the Ubuntu people decided to come up with their own interface for GNOME, called Unity, which happens to look and behave a lot like standard GNOME 3. I’m sure they have their reasons for duplicating the GNOME developers’ work, but I don’t know what those reasons are. I do know, or can guess, that Ubuntu wants to attract new users by making things simpler (or, from the perspective of the power user, dumbing things down) and by making them more visible on tiny mobile devices. So there’s that.

I’ve been using Unity for about a month, and I have to say that it’s so-so. It’s pretty flashy, even for little old me with an unsupported graphics card, but it’s still rough around the edges. There’s some inconsistency with the way some applications behave: the top bar is supposed to show the menu (file, edit, etc., whatever it’s called) when the cursor is over it and the window title when it’s not, but not all applications support that behavior. And some programs (such as LibreOffice Calc) sometimes don’t show up in the collection of icons (which I believe is called the launcher, which is confusing because previously a launcher was a shortcut).

One big mark against Unity is that it’s hard to customize. I know they tried to make it simple for new users, but I had to download a separate program (gnome-tweak-tool) just to be able to change simple things like the default font size (which is enormous—this is for you, mobile users!). That’s inexcusable. (In fact, the default whole theme is hideous, so I went through some trial and error to pick out a theme that I liked.) And while I found the default font (creatively titled Ubuntu) to be pretty ugly, the thin version (Ubuntu Light) is sexy as hell, if a bit hard to read at first. I recommend it.

Overall, I don’t think Unity is great yet, but it has potential. I really wish Ubuntu hadn’t come up with its own competitor to GNOME 3, but such is the world of free software: if you don’t like something (even if it’s for some silly reason), you can do it your way.

Next time, I’ll be talking about things that aren’t boring. Stay tuned!

Are you an introvert? I am, but fortunately, I don’t get asked a lot of ignorant questions about it. In case you do, it might be good to provide some snappy answers. Example: “Why are you always so serious?” “Always? Have you been stalking me?” On second thought, maybe it’s better to sit down and try to have a productive conversation about introversion, so just take these for whatever entertainment value they may provide.

Festivals

I live near the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle, the KeyArena, and numerous convention halls and other meeting areas. Every weekend, there’s some gathering or another going on in one or more of the buildings. A couple of weekends ago, I decided to check out two of them.

The first was called the Northwest Chocolate Festival. There were lots of booths by small, local candy companies. Some were offering free samples, and others had samples out that they were selling, but they didn’t want you to know that until you already had your heart set on eating some of them. ($2 for a piece of chocolate? Really?)

What I found more interesting were the booths and areas tangentially related to chocolate. One booth was staffed by an organization that was working to create some sort of clean-burning ovens in third-world countries. Another belonged to a local organization that teaches people how to do gardening and stuff in their backyard (or on their balcony—they don’t discriminate).

There was also the adult room. When I went in, someone was painting a woman’s body with what I guess was chocolate. There was also alcohol being served (I didn’t see if it was chocolate alcohol), and massages being offered (one at a time, unfortunately). Later, some person was telling an enraptured audience how to make use of food when flirting. I thought about getting a massage there at the seemingly reasonable rate of $1 per minute, but some old guy beat me to it. I still have never gotten a massage.

Next, I decided to go to CroatiaFest. My last name is Croatian, and I don’t really know a lot about my dad’s side of the family, even after going to Croatia and meeting some of my relatives. I don’t think I had even heard of Croatia until I found out some of my forebears came from there, and I doubt many other Americans have heard of it either. But given the history of the Balkans, that’s probably a good thing. Everyone knows about Kosovo, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Anyway, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was amazed. I had come across a massive gathering of Croatian-Americans in progress. The place was poppin’. There was a band playing what I assume were traditional Croatian tunes on traditional Croatian instruments. People were selling what I figured were Croatian groceries and were cooking what I surmised was Croatian food. I really don’t know anything about Croatia.

I became a bit emotional: these were my people. Sure, it’s a patriarchal notion and I’m mostly non-Croatian, but that’s just how I felt. And at the same time, I felt like adopted people probably do when, in adulthood, they finally meet their biological parents: that my curiosity was whetted but that I could never really fit in with this, one of my parent cultures. I could only go back to business as usual in the culture in which I was raised, in what’s normal.

I did eat some of the unreasonably expensive food, and I took a flier about Adriatic cruises (which seemed like a good idea until I looked at the prices). I would like to go back to Croatia, if only to say… well, I don’t know. I just want to go back and learn more.

Fun facts about the late Steve Jobs: He always drove a car without license plates, and he loved parking in handicapped spaces. Find out more!

The West Coast: the best coast?

Four months ago, I lived in Florida and had never been to the West Coast. Now, I live in Seattle.

I’d lived in Florida my whole life—only 22 years, but still. One thing I’ve noticed is that when looking at a map of the United States, my eyes instinctively drift to the lower-right-hand corner. Now, when I watch the news forecast on TV, they show this corner of the country that, by itself, looks pretty alien to me. It’ll take me a while to get used to that.

Less off-putting but still noticeable are the little things that set the West Coast apart from the world I as I know it.

First of all, mayonnaise. I’d always seen on the label of Hellman’s mayonnaise that Hellman’s is known as Best Foods west of the Rockies, but dang if it isn’t weird to see this “Best Foods” mayo on the shelf where Hellman’s ought to be. And one thing I didn’t know before I got here that Arnold bread is called Oroweat. Yes, making sandwiches is a different experience here on the West Coast.

The media is also different out here. Growing up at the very edge of the Miami media market, I watched CBS 4, NBC 6, and Local 10, and I listened to Majic 102.7. Here, I watch KOMO, KING, and KIRO, and I listen to KEXP. I guess call signs that start with “K” lend themselves to catchier names. Decide for yourself: the Miami stations I mentioned are WFOR, WTVJ, WPLG, and WMXJ. (Okay, I don’t actually listen to KEXP very much.)

I can tackle any of the Indian place names in Florida: Okeechobee, Loxahatchee, and… well, there aren’t many others. Here, there are some crazy names that I’m having more trouble with: Snohomish, Sammamish, Duwamish, Suquamish, Issaquah, Snoqualmie, Puyallup (prononuced “Pyuallup”), Sequim (pronounced “Squim”??). Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

It’s weird to see mountains everywhere. I still can’t get used to that. People hike a lot, and apparently they go skiing in the winter (or even in the summer, if it snows enough in the winter). Oh, and according to the news, people are always falling off cliffs and getting lost in the woods and stuff like that. No such things happen in Florida.

The Northwest is more sparsely populated than the Southeast. As a consequence (I think), people’s world is a little larger here. People don’t think much of going to California, even though going a similar distance up the East Coast would be a pretty big deal (to me). And a lot of the time on the news, they’ll talk about things going on in Oregon. That would be like if I were watching the news in Miami and they covered news in Orlando or Atlanta. It just doesn’t happen. They were like foreign countries to me when I was growing up.

Things are different here, but it’s not necessarily bad. For example, at least here in Seattle, Tim’s Cascade potato chips are widely available. They seem to be a local thing, and they are delicious. I’ve already sent a few bags to my family, and they agree!

Speaking of my family, I’m taking an extra-long Labor Day weekend—my first vacation as a working man—to visit them in Florida. I’m leaving tomorrow, and I probably won’t be posting while I’m there, but you can always follow me on Twitter if you’re into that sort of thing.

So, is the West Coast really the best coast? I don’t know; I was just trolling so you would read this. But you’re welcome to discuss the matter and offer your opinions here. I’d also be interested in hearing from people who grew up in the West Coast and then moved east (if any such people exist).

Here are a few anecdotes about kids growing up with today’s technology: Born Digital. It’s kind of frightening to think that small children mistake pieces of paper for iPads, but I’m sure adults had the same concerns about the first kids to grow up in front of the TV.

Vim and vigor

(Nerd Alert: Non-nerds can safely ignore this post.)

I’ve been around the Internet block long enough to know that programmers tend to care a great deal about what program they use to edit text—usually for writing programs, but potentially for anything. For decades now, they’ve been arguing over which family of text editors is better: vi or emacs.

When you use Notepad, or Word, or whatever the kids are using nowadays, you use the mouse for pretty much everything except when you’re typing. Programmers often work on the command line, either because they want to or because they have to, so everything that you could do with a mouse they have to do with the keyboard. Vi and emacs have so many features that this becomes a problem, and this is where the two classes of editors diverge.

GNU Emacs and other emacs-style editors give each operation a unique shortcut that’s often fairly involved, consisting of multiple keystrokes. In Vim and other vi-style editors, different operations may have the same shortcut—but never at the same time. Shortcuts have different meanings depending on the mode of operation you’re in. For example, in the default mode, “w” moves the cursor forward through whatever text you have open. Typing “:” will put you in command-line mode, where “w” saves the file. And then typing “i” puts you into insert mode, where “w” inserts the letter “w” into the file; i.e., you’re typing. The advantage of this (arguably) is that you spend less time entering commands and more time getting things done. (Plenty of emacs users believe otherwise; it just comes down to a matter of preference.)

So, what does all this have to do with me? I had always been content to use graphical editors like gedit or, if I really needed, a very simple text editor like nano with all of the major commands listed on the screen. But a lot of my friends used Vim on a semi-regular basis, and in my upper-level classes, I even saw people taking notes in it. And finally, I happened upon my friends’ hacking club meeting, where people were wowing everyone with all the cool tricks they could do in Vim. It was intriguing.

In November, halfway through a big project for my Artificial Intelligence class, I decided to learn Vim by using the vimtutor command that comes with it. After a few days, I was able to move the cursor around and edit text pretty easily, and I used Vim to finish the project. As cheesy as it sounds, I haven’t looked back.

Vim’s commands are really intuitive, so it’s easy to apply what you learn. The commands are like the building blocks of a language, as others have put it. And I find it very satisfying to change hundreds of lines of a file at once or move large blocks of text hither and thither without having to take my hands off the keyboard. I also like being able to edit different files side-by-side or even the same file side-by-side. There are really no limits to what you can do with Vim.

As if that weren’t enough, Vim is very configurable. There’s a ridiculous number of options and settings that can help you get things exactly the way you like them, boosting your productivity. I’ve put my .vimrc file online mainly so I can download it for use at work, but you’re welcome to look at it and take stuff from it or just make fun of whatever preferences I have set that you think are weird. (“Ewww, tabs??” That’s a holy war for another time.)

Everyone who’s a master at Vim thought it was weird at first but decided to give it a try anyway, just like I did. I won’t say I’ve mastered it, though; there are so many features that I can’t even remember all the ones I’ve heard of or even used. But over time, especially if I use Vim a lot for work, I could become super-productive. That would be pretty awesome.

If you use Linux, you probably have Vim installed. You can find out more about getting Vim at the official site. The Vim Tips Wiki is also helpful, and Vim’s own documentation is extensive. Because I’m crazy, I’ve shrunk the quick reference guide and the index of commands down to one page apiece (front and back) and printed them out. Now you can do the same if you don’t mind reading 3-point text!

Any other Vim users out there? Have any cool tips ‘n’ tricks to share? No holy wars, please!

Plain Text Offenders tries to shame websites that store their users’ passwords in plaintext. (Via waxy.org)

Citizens on patrol

Summer is an exciting time for Seattleites. It’s the one time of the year when it’s not cloudy all the time. (And with the clouds usually comes rain, for which Seattle is infamous, although I feel obligated to mention that the rain here is almost always imperceptibly light, like mist, and that Seattle gets less precipitation annually than most cities on the East Coast.)

Ahem. Anyway, the summer event that every Seattleite looks forward to is Seafair. Seafair is actually a series of events, including a parade and some boat races and stuff. There may be more, but that’s all I’ve heard about.

Well, I didn’t just hear about the parade… I was there to see it. It went down my street on July 30. Yes, that makes two parades down my street in little more than a month. This parade was different from the Pride Parade in that it was in the evening and seemed to be a bigger production (although it was shorter). Also, Drew Carey was the Grand Marshal for some reason. (I actually met him in 2005. If you remember that, you’ve been reading this blog since at least 2005!)

The following weekend was the boat thing, and everyone was super pumped about the Blue Angels doing a show as part of that. (It was actually pretty funny to see how excited everyone was.) They had been practicing near my work for a few days, and then I snagged a couple of pictures of them flying past my apartment after putting on their show. I didn’t see any of the day’s festivities in person, but I watched them on TV.

That’s not all I’ve been up to; I’ve been doing more to get involved in my neighborhood, Belltown. I can’t remember where I first heard about Belltown Citizens on Patrol, but I’ve been following them on Facebook, and yesterday they posted an announcement saying that they’d be going out for a walk that evening. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I figured it would be a good way to become more familiar with the neighborhood and help make it a little nicer.

It turned out that it was mostly people my parents’ age and older who were taking part; there were about 15 of us in all. We put on bright yellow vests and walked around the neighborhood, looking for signs of crime and vandalism. Nobody saw anything, though, so it was more of a goodwill thing. You’re supposed to greet everyone you see, and plenty of people wanted to talk to us. We also had a videographer and someone from the Seattle P-I in tow.

Also, some superheroes accompanied us. They were led by a masked man who goes by the name of Phoenix Jones. (Here’s a recent article about him and his fellow superheroes.) They also patrol the streets for crime, so they figured they could come and help. After our walk, which only lasted an hour, Phoenix recorded a video for his fans with all of us standing in the background. (Evidently, he disguises his identity online by typing in all caps.)

The Citizens on Patrol have their walks every week, so it might become a routine for me. If only I could get people my own age to come along…

For the nerds: Cool but obscure Unix tools. (Via waxy.org)

Amazin’

I work at Amazon.com (but I don’t represent the company here, and the opinions expressed are not necessarily theirs… just in case you weren’t sure about that). I’ve been there for almost a month now, and I know you guys are probably pretty curious to know what it’s like. Even if you’re not, I’ll tell you.

First, a little background: Amazon is headquartered here in Seattle, but it’s grown so fast in its short life that it has office space in buildings around the city. A few years ago, Amazon decided to build its own campus in South Lake Union, a formerly industrial neighborhood close to downtown that’s on its way back to being cool for the first time in, like, forever. Those plans have finally come to fruition, and most people are working in the new campus now. (It’s an urban campus, so it’s really just a set of buildings among some other unrelated buildings and they call it a campus. It’s not like the sprawling suburban campuses like Microsoft and Google have.)

Anyway, my first date was May 31, and I was due to attend New Hire Orientation in the morning. A whole bunch of us new people had an ice breaker about Amazon trivia and got information about health benefits and pretty standard stuff like that. One of the guys in my session had also come from the University of Florida, but with a master’s degree. He said he recognized me, but I didn’t recognize him. I hate when that happens. Each of us also got an ORCA card paid for by Amazon, so we can use most of the region’s public transportation on their dime.

When New Hire Orientation was over, I met my supervisor. It was lunchtime. Since more and more people are working in South Lake Union these days, especially with Amazon moving in, a number of restaurants have sprung up to cater to the weekday lunch crowd. Near the building where I work, an enterprising local restaurateur has set up three new restaurants, so we went to one of them for a quick bite. My supervisor told me about the kind of stuff I’d be working on and asked me about myself. I was pretty nervous, it being my first day and all, but I didn’t collapse into a heap or anything.

I had chosen to work in Retail Systems, so within that area I was assigned to a team that’s working on software to manage inventory orders. My supervisor leads the team but isn’t detached from it; he’s a member of the team like everyone else. At first it was kind of intimidating being around so many adults all the time, but everyone’s cool. I’m not the only young and new person on the team, either. An intern started at the same time as I did, and another one joined us last week. If I had to guess without counting, I’d say there are about ten of us at this point. We probably won’t get too many more people because Amazon likes to have what it calls “two-pizza teams.” It seems like a good rule of thumb.

So, what’s a typical day like for me? I can get in whenever I want; I don’t even have to clock in or clock out. (As long as you’re doing your work, they don’t mind.) Actually, I like to leave my apartment between 7:40 and 7:45 so I can make it to my desk at 8:00 AM. And then I work on software, mostly fixing bugs or adding features I’ve been asked to add. I like to take an hour for lunch, and I usually eat at one of the restaurants within a few blocks of my building. Then, if I have time left over and the weather is nice, I go to Lake Union Park and just sit and watch the seaplanes, sailboats, geese, or whatever else happens to be hanging around. I can’t believe the park is less than a year old; it’s a real treasure.

In the afternoon, it’s back to coding. Some afternoons, I guess about every week or two, a band or author will come to Amazon to plug their latest album or book, respectively, so I figure that’s a fun thing to look forward to. (I’ve been to one so far: The Airborne Toxic Event gave an intimate performance and even had an opening act.) But invariably, at 4:30, my team has its daily stand-up, where everyone fills everyone else in on what they’ve done during the day and what they plan on doing next. I think other teams do this in the morning, but we do it in the afternoon so we can teleconference with one of our teammates who works in Amazon’s Beijing office. And with that, my day at work is over, so I walk back to my apartment, where I arrive 15 to 20 minutes later.

I’m loving it so far, especially because I got my first paycheck today. Yes, I get paid monthly. The check (well, direct deposit) includes half of my signing bonus (the other half comes in a year). It’s been kind of a tough month for me since moving-related expenses were draining me dry. But I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

If you have any other questions about what it’s like to work at Amazon, fire away!

And on an unrelated note, the answer to a question you’ve been wondering about: When did prisoners start dressing in orange?

What I learned in college

I’ve taken a lot of courses in college. I majored in computer science with a minor in business administration, but I also took a few liberal arts-type classes that had nothing to do with what I was actually there to study. They were interesting, though. Each one tended to have an overall theme that was present throughout the course, and once I got a grip on that main idea, I’d have a better understanding of everything I was supposed to be learning about.

Eventually, I realized I could probably summarize the main message of each of my college courses in a single statement… or at least recall one thing from the course that stuck with me. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• MAC2313 (Calculus III): Like Calc I, but in 3D!
• CHM2045 (Chemistry I): At first glance, atoms seem simple. But they’re actually not.
• CHM2045L (Chemistry I Lab): “‘A’ for effort” is a real thing.
• AMH3931 (America in the Fifties): The ’50s were crazier than everyone remembers.
• GEO2410 (Social Geography): People like to have lots of space, but they’re better off living all close together.
• MAP2302 (Differential Equations): e^πi = -1. I forget why, but I think it has to do with circles.
• BSC2008 (Biological Sciences: Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior): The food chain gets narrower at the top because some energy goes to waste when animals eat each other. Mind = blown.
• CIS3022 (Programming I for CIS Majors): Getters and setters!
• PHY2048 (Physics I with Calculus): If your professor hangs a bowling ball from the ceiling, stands up against a wall, holds the bowling ball up to his face, lets go of it, and remains perfectly still, he knows it won’t hit his face when it comes back, but he’ll flinch anyway.
• PHY2048L (Physics I with Calculus Lab): Not everything is a frictionless box in real life.
• IDH3931 (Sultans, Seafarers, Slaves, and Spices: The Indian Ocean in Antiquity): The people in East Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia had their shit together way before the Europeans.
• ENC3254 (Technical Writing for Engineers): Never use a long word when a shorter one will suffice. But for some reason, you can’t say “since” instead of “because.”
• CIS3023 (Programming II for CIS Majors): Subclasses! Interfaces! Abstract classes!
• PHY2049 (Physics II with Calculus): The tesla is an impractical unit of measure.
• PHY2049L (Physics II with Calculus Lab): Having a really early class can help you avoid early-morning fire alarms in your dorm.
• EEL3701C (Digital Logic): Anything that involves soldering is not for me.
• ANT2301 (Human Sexuality): Whatever you’re into is probably okay.
• COT3100 (Discrete Structures): If Mark is a zebra, and all zebras have stripes, then Mark has stripes.
• CDA3101 (Computer Organization and Design): If you have to program in assembly, then you may as well just shoot yourself.
• ECO2023 (Principles of Microeconomics): As you get more and more of something, each one is worth less and less to you.
• MAS3114 (Computational Linear Algebra): MATLAB sucks.
• STA3032 (Engineering Statistics): People still look up numbers in tables instead of using calculators.
• COP3530 (Data Structures and Algorithms): A tree is a kind of graph!
• ACG2021C (Introduction to Financial Accounting): Debits go on one side, credits go on the other.
• CIS4301 (Information and Database Systems I): Use joins for everything.
• CEN3031 (Introduction to Software Engineering): Brooks’ law is correct.
• COT4501 (Numerical Analysis): Image compression is all math!
• FIN3403 (Business Finance): I’m not going to have a pension or Social Security, so I’d better start saving for retirement now!
• SPC2608 (Introduction to Public Speaking): I have nothing to say about this class because I never want to think about it again.
• COP4600 (Operating Systems): Kernels are complicated things.
• MAN3025 (Principles of Management): Be nice to your peons.
• CAP4621 (Artificial Intelligence): Lisp probably makes perfect sense if you have brain damage.
• CGS3065 (Legal and Social Issues in Computing): You can find a legal or moral gray area in just about anything.
• CNT4007C (Computing Networking Fundamentals): I have a new respect for the people who came up with Wi-Fi. That’s complicated stuff.
• MAR3023 (Principles of Marketing): People put a lot of thought into getting you to buy things.
• CIS4930 (Introduction to Computational Intelligence): Handwriting recognition is all math!
• CIS4930 (Natural Language Processing with Python): Python is actually pretty intuitive. It should be called the anti-Lisp.
• CIS4914 (Senior Project): Don’t procrastinate.

Thanks for reading. That’ll be $20,000.

The BBC reports on the secrets of Britain’s abandoned villages.

The college years are over

These past few months, while I haven’t been writing about my trip to Russia, I’ve been focusing on my studies. It was my last semester of college, and I had a lot of stuff on my plate, so I wanted to make sure I did a good job with everything. In my case, I needed to take a full course load this semester to satisfy all my requirements.

One of the things I had to do was complete a senior project. I chose to develop a ride-sharing website in a similar vein as CouchSurfing. I need to make sure the university doesn’t own the rights to it; otherwise I’d like to roll it out myself sometime later.

Since I work on campus, this week is my last week of work. (I think I’ll have to come in on Monday for a little bit, but probably not for long.) At this month’s meeting, on April 14, the other graduating seniors and I were honored with certificates, windbreakers, and catering from Olive Garden. Three of my favorite things right there. They’re going to miss me at work, and I’ll miss being there, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to move out to Seattle and work at Amazon.

I can’t pretend that I haven’t been thinking about the move—I’ve been obsessing over it, actually—but I’ve been trying to reflect on the past four years as well. You know, to wax poetic the way I usually do. I’ve done some fun stuff and made a lot of friends. I don’t think I would have done anything differently if I could do it all again. Maybe I would have gone out more (I played a lot of Minesweeper my freshman year). I think I’ve turned out okay, though.

Right now, I’m kind of in a weird place: My classes are over, but instead of heading home as I usually would have done by now, I’m staying in Gainesville, going to work every day, and waiting for the graduation ceremony. My sister is graduating on Saturday; I’m graduating on Sunday. (Surely she’ll brag about this for years to come, just like how she tells everyone that she’s a minute older than I am.)

I can already tell that college graduation is different from high school graduation: it’s not mandatory, no rehearsals you have to attend, no maximum number of people you can bring, no bullshit. Well, there is some bullshit: Herff-Jones is back and selling college rings. But you and we that have free souls, it touches us not.

So, on Sunday, I shall stride across a stage wearing funny clothes and pretend to receive a diploma. Call it what you want, but I call it closure.

And hey, if you can’t make it or just want to be a total creeper, you can watch my graduation online! Click that link at 5:00 PM EDT on Sunday; that’s when it’s supposed to start.

And while I have your attention, it’s time to bust the myth that fast-food burgers don’t rot because they’ve got nasty stuff in them. Actually, it looks like homemade burgers don’t rot either. (Via The Presurfer)

It happened at the career fair

It’s my last semester of college, and for the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on my senior project. But earlier this semester, something else was keeping me busy.

Every day, I spend some time in the Dungeon, the main computer lab in the Computer Sciences and Engineering building. One day in January, I noticed a banner on the wall advertising the Career Development Workshop. I foolishly assumed that it was some sort of career development workshop, but I soon found out that it’s a career fair just for students in my department (Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering) and a few related ones. Basically, you dress up and chat with representatives from these companies, and later, if they like you and your resume, they’ll ask you for an interview.

Since I had no idea what I was going to do with my life after graduation, I decided I should check it out. So, on Monday, January 24, I broke out my suit and resumes and headed to the Career Development Workshop. I thought I wouldn’t have to get there right when it started, but I was dead wrong. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in—way more than I had imagined.

And for all those job-seeking students, there were only 10 or 12 companies represented. Some were small, local companies, and the others were huge ones located elsewhere. When I finally made it inside, I realized that most people were waiting in long lines to talk to recruiters from Disney, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and Amazon.

I had done some research on the companies that were there, and Amazon was the one I wanted to talk to the most. They had sent out an e-mail before CDW with details on the position that they were looking to fill. I seemed surprisingly qualified, so I sent them my resume and did a little bit of research. I’d been really pleased with the dealings I’d had with Amazon as a customer, and I figured it would be a fun company to work for.

I decided to warm up by talking to some local companies. I didn’t have to wait very long to talk to them, which was good, because I bombed. The first guy I talked to worked for a local software company, and he asked me some questions about things I didn’t remember. That was awesome. He said he’d pass my resume on to the HR people for their consideration. The second company was even worse. That guy just looked over my resume and said thanks. Clearly I was not what they were looking for.

Then I decided to wait in line for Amazon. After about two hours, I had moved less than halfway up the line, but I was still at the end because hardly anyone had gotten in line behind me. I was wondering if I would even get a chance to talk to them at all, and I was also wondering how I could try to stand out from everyone else, most of whom seemed to be graduate students.

At that point, it was almost 10 PM, so CDW was almost over. One of the Amazon people came to the back of the line to talk to us poor souls who had been waiting for so long. She told us that they still wanted to talk to everyone who was in line and that they could continue talking to people in the CSE building that night or at Career Showcase, a much larger student job fair, two days later.

We said we wanted to be able to choose, and she said that was fine. But for the students who wanted to wait until Career Showcase, she wanted to make things fair: She didn’t want them to have to wait in a long line all over again, and she wanted to keep everyone in the same order as they were in this line. So she asked us for ideas on how to do that. Right then, I knew that this was my one chance. If I had a good idea, I could stand out from everyone else.

Somebody suggested that she write our names down, and then we could just tell them our name later, and they’d know who we were. She said that that wouldn’t solve the problem of keeping everyone in order, so she went away to the other Amazon people and came back with the idea of having a time slot for everyone who was interested.

I thought that was a terrible idea. People are always late for things, and some of them might decide not to show up, or their chats might last too long and make other people have to wait or whatever. Fortunately, by that time, I had a better idea.

“I have an idea,” I said to her. “Give each of us a card with a number on it. The first person in line gets number 1, the second person gets number 2, and so on. Then, at Career Showcase, when you’re ready to talk to someone, pick the person who has the lowest number.”

She said she really liked that idea and thanked me for it. Soon, she was giving everyone a number written on an Amazon business card (and she thanked me again as she was doing it). I was delighted.

By that time, everybody had to leave because CDW was over. The Amazon people were giving us the choice of talking to them right after CDW or at Career Showcase, so I decided to talk to them that night while my idea was fresh in their memory. I went to the CSE building with a few other students and waited for the Amazon people to arrive.

Once they got there, they used the numbered cards to keep people in their original order. One of the other Amazon people talked to me when it was my turn. He asked me some questions that weren’t too hard. I thought it went pretty well even though I needed a little help. We also talked about some of the projects I had done for my classes, like my artificial intelligence project. When we were done, I made sure to mention to him that I had the idea for the cards.

The next day, Tuesday, Amazon had an information session in the student union. There, they talked about what it’s like to work for Amazon and about the application process and stuff like that. They also talked about how much they liked Seattle.

I had found out that Amazon was based in Seattle, but since I didn’t like the idea of living there (too much rain, I figured) and because I knew they had offices in other places, I wanted to ask about working for them in another city. But during the info session, they managed to convince me that Seattle is a pretty neat place. I guess I’m easily convinced. Also, I figured it would be best to work at their headquarters so I could have a lot of opportunities to advance and try new things.

Career Showcase was the next day, and once again, I was wearing a suit. There were a lot more companies there because it was for all math and engineering students. I spoke to people from a few other companies, and I happened to see some of the Amazon people walking around. The HR woman saw me and told me that the numbered cards were working great. She gave me her business card and then said something like, “We’ll have to see what we can do about you!”

About an hour later, I got an e-mail saying that I had been accepted for the first round of interviews. They would be next Wednesday, February 2, on campus.

My boss had been very supportive of me in my search for a job after graduation, so that Friday, he took me out to lunch and talked to me about what I should say at the interview. He also said I should get a new suit—the one I had didn’t fit so great, and he made a case for it being the most important article of clothing you can have—so the day before the interview, I did. I went to the store in the mall where my sister works, and she helped me pick out everything. She even paid for it.

The first round consisted of a 45-minute interview for which I was snazzily dressed. I had done research on the types of questions to expect (mainly by reading blog posts written by people who had interviewed with Amazon and failed). My interview consisted of questions about design, algorithms, and scripting, the last of which I wouldn’t have been able to answer at all if it weren’t for my Linux experience.

I was feeling pretty good about the interview, and fortunately, I wouldn’t have to wait long to find out if I passed: they were going to be calling people for the second round that very night. I waited and waited until I was sure that they must have called everybody they were going to call, but… they called. They told me that my interviews for round two would be tomorrow.

So, I found myself in the same place the next day, but this time I had a different shirt and tie (I got two of each), and I would be facing three 45-minute interviews with other people. I thought I’d be really nervous, especially since the interview rooms were so tiny and it was just me and the other person in there, but it actually wasn’t that bad. I was pretty composed the whole time. The questions were similar to what I had been asked the day before: algorithms, design, scripting, and so on. One interviewer just asked me how I would design a particular system and spent the whole time pressing me for all kinds of details about everything. I enjoyed it.

The interviewers were pretty cool. The last one I talked to was himself a UF graduate, and once he was done with his questions, I asked him some questions about living in Seattle. He said that it was good that I was an undergrad because most of their applicants were grad students, and the undergrads were apparently too afraid to apply.

I wasn’t sure how well I’d do compared to the grad students, but one week later, I got the e-mail saying that I was being offered the position of Software Development Engineer. I officially accepted the position on March 9, and soon afterward came the best part. I talked with the HR woman, the one I had given the idea about the cards, and she asked me about my strengths and interests. Based on that, she got some managers to contact me and ask me to join their teams. I ended up picking Retail Systems, which deals with pricing, ordering, and things like that that are central to Amazon’s business.

I’m graduating on May 1. My start date is May 31. Between those two dates, I’ll be moving to Seattle!

Crappy limericks

I’ve been really busy lately; here’s one of the many things I’m doing.

For one of my classes, I’m writing a program that writes limericks. It references a pronunciation dictionary to find sets of rhyming words and a collection of newspaper articles (apparently from the 1950s) to put words in a random but plausible order. The program doesn’t really have a sense of meter yet. If it comes up with something that actually vaguely makes sense, it’s just a coincidence because each line is written independently of the others.

Here’s a selection:

Her polo grounds is cheap
And grand champion 4-h sheep
Last night at noon
Agreements calls soon
Only marvel at a 2-inch deep

And city fashion show at bat
The streets and miss pat
A baseball writers’
In cigaret lighters
Agree on the byer-rolnick hat

New president also could have rated
The question of dimes and waited
Because the 10-hour daily
Ex-mrs. bud daley
It appeared to end a feted

In right center and down
Like that 60,000 old towne
Katanga and beads
He avidly reads
Schools and conservative barriers around

Break the farm income is known
President eisenhower administration and aaron cohn
Grow up pops
A small shops
150,000,000 would not the phone

Here from 1951 through a wreck
The bills of texas tech
The rev. mr. werner
Mrs. h. merner
Aggies got a 17-1/2-inch neck

Bring the united states to send
A way of communist north bend
1954 but it took
The 21st and cooke
Camera in what this would lend

1956 but also admitted killing
People are having a tilling
To his hands
Before 5777 fans
Is aiding them with caramel filling

Can’t afford the main dining
Bill which actually owns and mining
A zinc mine
Is asking the fine
And 7 last year after signing

And sons and dave mills
Bill was reached the bill’s
The arithmetical sum
Was the rum
For months ending in beverly hills

Was and out a peak
Away the prospect of chic
He made the nuns
Library and submachine guns
To a whopping 8% next week

Photographs that show the value of a dollar.